Various inkjet technologies are employed by printer manufacturers including thermal bubble and piezoelectric. In a thermal inkjet printer, tiny resistors create heat, and this heat vaporizes ink to create a bubble. As the bubble expands, some of the ink is expelled from the nozzles onto the print medium. By selectively energizing the resistors as the print head moves across the print medium, the ink is disposed in a pattern on the print medium to form a desired image.
Inkjet printers operate using a print head comprising a plurality of nozzles, which spray ink directly onto a print medium. Typically the print head is an integral part of the print cartridge, the print cartridge further including an ink reservoir. One or more print cartridges are mounted on a movable print carriage. The print carriage moves laterally across the print medium depositing the ink on the print medium in a pattern to form an image.
Print head nozzles often become clogged with ink or particulates resulting in inefficient operation of the print heads and reduced print quality. Therefore, inkjet printers usually include a service station that provides functions for maintenance of the print heads. The major service station functions comprise spitting, capping and wiping of the print head to keep the nozzles functioning properly.
When not in use, the print head nozzles are sealed by a capping system to prevent drying out of ink within the print head and cartridge and contamination thereof by particulates. Any clogging of the print head may be cleared by forcing ink to be discharged through each of the nozzles. Expelled ink is collected in a spitting reservoir, often referred to as a “spittoon”, which is associated with the service station. Service stations typically further provide a wiper, to wipe the surface of the print head in order to remove any ink residue or contaminants such as dust or fibres that may have collected on the print head surface.
The service station is typically a stationary assembly mounted within the printer housing. The print head is brought into alignment with the service station for maintenance. In most conventional inkjet printers, the service station components are disposed in a side-by-side configuration in the region where the print carriages return when the printer is idle. This region is usually located to one side of the print zone of the printer. Therefore the width of the printer housing is typically a combined width of the print zone and the adjacent print carriage assemblies, and the width of the service station arranged end-to-end.
The width of the printer housing is an important consideration, particularly in the case of desktop printers since desk space is often limited. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a printer housing of reduced width. Reducing the overall width of the printer housing may provide additional advantages such as reduced weight and lower cost of manufacture.